Follow by Email

Are Gardeners Naturally Eccentric?

I’ve been browsing through the 1961 edition of How to Grow Vegetables & Fruits by the Organic Method, edited by J. I. Rodale and staff. It’s funny to read it now, nearly 50 years after it was first published. They were so excited about organic gardening and mulch and compost!

Just like we are today.

If you’d like to read about some eccentric gardeners, this book would be a good place to start. There’s a write up starting on page 25 about Mrs. H. R. Leversee of Kalamazoo, Michigan who was quoted as saying “I like to work with plain dirt.”

And she did! According to the write up, nearly every day she set out with her wheelbarrow and shovel and walked up and down her street scooping up the dirt that “lines the gutters”. They estimated she transported 100 tons of dirt from the street to her garden over the course of 17 years and wore out three wheelbarrows.

An eccentric gardener? I’d say so. Her final quote… “Working is like walking. If you enjoy it you never notice it. I like to work with plain dirt. I like to see things grow in it. Every shovelful I take from along the curbs will produce food some day. I’ll never get tired of watching that happen.”

I bet her neighbor’s wondered what she was doing out there, nearly every day of the year, year after year. Maybe after awhile they got used to seeing her with her wheelbarrow and shovel, scooping up dirt? Maybe they thought she was just trying to keep the streets clean? Maybe she shared with them some of the vegetables from her garden, grown in their dirt?

One of my sisters, who shall remain nameless, once told me she thought I was the most likely in the family to become eccentric. I’ll have to ask her if she remembers saying that and if it is because I garden.

You might have thought me a bit odd, but hardly eccentric, this evening when I was out in the garden, seeing for the first time that all the rest of my sweet corn, which wasn’t a lot but was greatly anticipated, had been ruined by raccoons. They scratched and clawed at nearly every remaining ear out there! Mostly I was just muttering and looking at the destruction with disgust. Later I took pictures. Or the other day, if you had watched over the fence as I made another video, this one called simply ‘The Gardener’, you might have wondered what was going on. After all, it took me two ‘takes’ to get this “triumph of video recording with a digital camera” recorded.

But I don’t know if I’ve reached the level of an ‘eccentric’ in her garden. Aren’t eccentrics old? I’m still too young!

Do you consider yourself a bit eccentric as a gardener? Do gardeners tend to be more eccentric than others?

(So, in wrapping up this post, I checked on the definition of eccentric. Why did they choose THAT clipart to show an eccentric person? I think I’ve just answered the question about “are gardeners considered eccentric”. Discuss amongst yourselves…)

I'm eccentric right there with you. My mom biggest criticism of me was that I was eccentric just like my grandmother. You can guess which one. I'm so sorry about your corn. I gave up growing corn a long time ago because of the raccoons. The devils. They are cute, but I don't like 'em.~~Dee

Being Eccentric isn't a bad thing, just makes a person more interesting. You have more character than others, that's all. :) Sorry about the Sweet Corn, I'm sure after the anticipation it was a disappointment to be beat out by those pesky raccoons.

I'm not sure I've met a gardener who wasn't at least slightly eccentric. You kind of have to be just to put up with all the setbacks (like racoons in your corn), all in order to produce a thing of beauty.

How cool is that...my mother just gave me her copy of "How to Grow Vegetables and Fruits..." Yep. The 1961 edition. I've been enjoying it very much especially since my mother wrote little notes in pencil in the margin and even drew her own picture of how to layer a compost pile.

I participated in a month long leadership program spread over a year and the program started by identifying our leadership types. The types included Intelligence, Sex, Beauty, Humor, Danger, Eccentric, and Charm. The point was to understand your type so that you could use those gifts in your leadership. We spent a good deal of time learning how to relax into our type.

After reading a couple of posts of your blog, it was clear to me that you are an Eccentric (I am too) AND that you lead so beautifully from your type, that you are "on type" as we would say in leadership jargon.

People spend lots of money to learn how to be themselves, and you've nailed it. Your blog is such a treasure because you let yourself be yourself, and I think what you say soaks into your readers more than maybe the average blogger because of it.

And no, I don't think you have to be eccentric to be a gardener, but I am sure that you have inspired quite a few to play with being eccentric in their gardens.

By definition, eccentric really has nothing to do with age; it simply means something unusual or odd. According to that, I've always been eccentric. :-) I'm not sure that I think of myself as eccentric as far as my "gardening side" goes, but I do think that others "don't get that side". Sometimes, I think it takes one to know one, if you know what I mean. If you saw me staring up at the undersides of my jalapeno leaves, you'd probably think nothing of it. The lady who lives downstairs, on the other hand, probably thinks it quite odd. :)

1) That's the hat you won at Spring Fling in the video, right, Carol? Suits you well! As long as you're not lining it with tinfoil against Martian rays, you're probably okay.

2)If that pre-1961 street in Kalamazoo had cars driving on it I sure hate to think how much lead Mrs Leversee added to that "organic" garden. Some scientists think that ingestion of lead can be a cause of eccentric behavior - which came first?

3) Other people's relatives may be weird, but mine are just eccentric.

4)Sorry you lost your corn - in Illinois we knew the raccoons would get the ears, but I'd hoped to get the stalks for Halloween decorations but even those were trashed, too.

I was once called "weird" by a neighbor because of my gardening habits(I believe I was outside in my pj's taking pictures of daylilys), so I'd much rather be called eccentric, I think I would take it as a compliment!

I was going to say, no, I'm not at all eccentric. I'm actually sorta boring, I think. I dig in the dirt, but that's not eccentric. And then I read Nichole's comment about photographing daylilies in PJs. Nailed! I guess I am eccentric, after all.

You know whats funny about that? (And I laughed out loud in the greenhouse while looking at it) is the clip art shows someone with flowers. haha. OHHH. Whee. Yes. That is so funny.

I've met a lot of 'normal' gardeners that pass through the greenhouse but I have to say, the weird ones far out weigh the normal ones and even the normal ones are different on some level. I think there may be different levels of weird/eccentric/etc/whateveryouwanttocallit.

This brings a fond smile to my face about a girl name shirley, who ALWAYS wears a dress when she comes in, but she also ALWAYS wears construction boots covered in mudd when she does. She gets a lot of clients because of it. The more you look like a gardener, the more people think you know what you're talking about.

I was eccentric long before I started gardening. I think I was born eccentric. So to me, most gardeners seem quite normal. "Eccentric" is such a nice word, compared with "weird," "wacky," or "crazy." Carol, you're an eccentric (the hoe collection is a great example). To me, eccentric people are just more interesting.

Hi, Carol. Have just discovered your wonderful blog. Most of my gardening friends are very particular about what they allow to grow in their gardens; for example, one loves roses, one hates roses; one says if you can't eat it there's no use growing it, and another says why grow veggies when you can buy them at the market. Each probably considers the other eccentric. People used to call me eccentric because I gardened organically, but now that I'm old enough to be eccentric, organic gardening is becoming mainstream. Maybe eccentricity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder?

Hmmm...I have never thought of myself as eccentric, but I am pretty sure my friends and family like to wink, nod and smile when I talk about gardenblogging...As gardeners we are called passionate but it's said with much the same italics!

Your comment about 1961 Organic Gardening reminded me of a book a friend gave us this summer. One of her instructors and mentors said it should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in horticulture. It is 1001 Garden Questions Answered by Alfred Carl Hottes. It was first published in 1926 in New York by A.T. De la Mare Co., Inc. My copy is from 1937, the seventh printing, second edition "heavily revised and reset." (I never saw that before.) The first plate near the title page is a garden picture which says "What can do more to beautify a path or lawn than a border of Delphiniums and Madonna Lilies such as this?"

I pride myself on my eccentricity. Like Dee, I believe mine is inherited from my grandmother. At a time when women were expected to be anyone but themselves, she was unabashedly and unashamedly herself. She was a gardener, and a brilliant one. I wish she'd lived long enough for us to share our passion for plants.

I don't mind being kind of the neighborhood eccentric. It's better than being the village idiot! :> Plus I garden on the street so I meet lots of folks and give them tastes of what I grow. Maybe they find me a bit odd but at least I'm friendly. Happy gardening!